One calendar. Every platform.

A channel manager is a single dashboard that syncs your room availability and bookings across every OTA you list on. If you have a property on Airbnb plus Booking.com plus any other platform, you need one. Without it, every phone booking means logging into three dashboards to block dates; every double booking means cancelling one guest and taking the review hit. A channel manager collapses that work into one calendar.

For Indian homestays, hill-station hotels, and small properties (1-20 rooms), yes. The heavy-lift features paid channel managers charge for (revenue management AI, yield pricing, PMS integrations) matter at scale, not at 5 rooms. What you actually need is reliable iCal sync, and that is a commodity. Fursat does it free because we make money on the guest side, not on hotelier software.

iCal pushes calendar updates every 15 minutes via a plain-text URL. API sync is real-time but requires each OTA to build a connector for the channel manager. Most Indian properties under 20 rooms use iCal because every major OTA (Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda, MakeMyTrip) supports it out of the box. API is the right call for chains with shared inventory across 50+ properties; iCal is the right call for everyone else.

MakeMyTrip and Goibibo charge 15-22% (capped around 22% after the 2024 hotel association pushback). Booking.com runs 15-20%, with Preferred Partner up to 20%. Airbnb defaults to host-only 15.5% since late 2025, or split 3% host + guest fee on legacy accounts. Agoda and Expedia run 15-25% depending on the agreement. These are posted rates; chains with volume negotiate lower.

No. iCal sync is a standard integration the OTAs publish themselves. Switching or adding a channel manager does not change your OTA relationship. It only changes how calendar updates flow.

Every state runs its own homestay scheme. Himachal Pradesh launched homestay.hp.gov.in in February 2026 (6 rooms max). Rajasthan raised the 2026 cap to 8 rooms, 24 beds. Goa requires a ₹1,000 annual fee and 90-day processing. Mumbai (BMC) requires a 10-year short-term rental licence with housing society NOC. Fursat does not handle registration for you. The state tourism board does.

Fursat's channel manager itself has nothing to bill (it is free). Your OTA commissions and guest invoicing stay between you and each OTA. Direct bookings you capture through WhatsApp come with the guest details formatted so your accountant can issue the GST invoice on your side.

Yes. Each room gets its own calendar URL. If Room 1 is booked on Airbnb, only Room 1 goes blocked on Booking.com. Room 2 stays open. Critical for homestays with 2-10 rooms where each room has independent availability.

Nothing changes. Fursat imports every blocked date from your existing Airbnb and Booking.com iCal feeds on day one. We do not modify or cancel any booking. We only add two-way sync on top.

Fursat is a homestay marketplace first. Channel manager is the lead magnet: once your calendar is on our system, we can surface your property to the guests we already have. We make money on the guest side through booking volume. Your free channel manager is the cheapest form of hotelier acquisition we can run.

Yes. Fursat's channel manager is free for any Indian homestay or hotel, including hosts whose only channel today is Airbnb. Paste your Airbnb link, and it syncs your calendar against Booking.com, Agoda, and MakeMyTrip, no card, no subscription, no per-listing fee.

An OTA (online travel agency) manager, more commonly called a channel manager, is software that keeps your availability and rates consistent across every OTA you're listed on, so a booking on one platform automatically blocks that date everywhere else.

Free is the cheapest, and Fursat's is free with no tier, trial period, or per-property cap for Indian homestays and hotels. Paid channel managers (₹1,000-3,000/month range) earn their price at 20+ rooms with dedicated revenue-management needs; below that, free iCal-based sync covers what most hosts actually need.